A Lion's share of grief

Even without a building, former LaSalle family still grieves together.

Even without a building, former LaSalle family still grieves together.

April 30, 2007|MICHAEL WANBAUGH Tribune Staff Writer

SOUTH BEND -- After hearing the unthinkable news Tuesday morning, Robert Sikorski began thumbing through the 1991 edition of the "Lantern" he still had on his shelf. The theme, as proclaimed on the annual's glossy cover, was, "We're all in the same game." Pictures inside that LaSalle High School yearbook suggest 1991 was still very much an era of stonewashed Levis, big hair and weak mustaches. It also suggests that senior Nick Polizzotto was a big part of the close-knit school. "There must be 15 pictures of him in there," said Sikorski, LaSalle's principal at the time. "He was very involved and just such an unassuming, self-assured young man." Polizzotto went on to graduate from Indiana University and become a nine-year veteran of the South Bend Police Department. Sikorski would retire in 1995 after serving nine years as LaSalle's principal. LaSalle, which opened in 1965, closed after the 2001-2002 school year as part of Plan Z redistricting. The building would open a year later as an Intermediate Academy magnet school. The unthinkable news Sikorski heard Tuesday morning from his daughter -- a 1990 LaSalle graduate -- was that Polizzotto, 34, died just hours earlier. He had been shot and killed while on duty, responding to a call of shots fired at the Wooden Indian Motel. For Sikorski and other members of the proud LaSalle family, Polizzotto's death tore open a wound that was still in the process of healing. A mere 366 days earlier, 1987 LaSalle graduate and South Bend police veteran Scott L. Severns was shot and killed while protecting a friend near the corner of Clover Street and Northside Boulevard, less than a mile from where Polizzotto was gunned down. John Woodruff taught math for 25 years at LaSalle. He has spent the last five years at Adams High School. He's had a lot of students in 30 years of teaching, and thinks he had both Polizzotto and Severns in class. "It was pretty rough hearing about Nick," Woodruff said. "The thing that hit me and a lot of LaSalle people pretty hard was Scott Severns graduated a few years before Nick. They both became police officers and were killed basically across the river from each other a year and a day apart." Both Sikorski and Woodruff noted that it seems like a good number of LaSalle graduates went on to become police officers. Woodruff estimated about a dozen that he could think of. Just hours before Polizzotto was killed, the community held a candlelight vigil commemorating the one-year anniversary of Severns' death. For Sikorski, it finally seemed like the healing had begun. Then he got the call from his daughter. "I couldn't believe it," he said. "We just finished with the anniversary for Scott, then this happens. "I still get choked up talking about it. When I heard about Nick ... I don't know how to explain it. I was just done for the day." Compounding the grief for the South Bend Community School Corp. is the fact that both Polizzotto's parents were longtime teachers in the corporation. Daniel Polizzotto taught at Clay High School and Rosemary at LaSalle. Both are now retired. With the closing of LaSalle, its former teachers are now spread around the corporation. So, for those teachers who may not have known Nick Polizzotto, many still knew his parents. Dianne Greaves, now the corporation's assistant superintendent of student management, said there is still a strong LaSalle allegiance among its former teachers. Greaves was principal of LaSalle High School after Sikorski. "My phone started buzzing as soon as I got in on Tuesday," Greaves said. "People wanted to organize something supportive for the Polizzotto family right away." Former LaSalle teachers still meet for a reunion every May at Pinhook Park. This year, Greaves said, they plan to take a monetary collection to give to the Polizzotto family. While police are urging citizens to tie a black ribbon around their car antennas as a show of support, former LaSalle teachers and students are urged to tie on a black and red ribbon, the former school colors. Many of them will meet before today's funeral and attend as a group. "When we heard about Nick," Woodruff said, "a lot of the former LaSalle teachers were pretty emotional around here." In the face of another tragedy, they're all in the same game once again as they grieve. "I just feel so much empathy for Nick's family," Sikorski said. "They all contributed so much to this community." Staff writer Michael Wanbaugh:mwanbaugh@sbtinfo.com(574) 235-6176